Two bald eagles soared high on Saturday taking their first flight to freedom after months of rehabilitation.
The juvenile bald eagles — both of which hatched this year — were released Saturday at York River State Park after being rescued from different parts of the state, according to a Wildlife Center of Virginia news release.
“Every single animal release reminds me why I’ve been doing this 35 years,” said Ed Clark, Jr., president and founder of the Waynesboro-based Wildlife Center of Virginia. “There’s just nothing like it.”
York River State Park in James City County has hosted eagle releases in conjunction with the Wildlife Center of Virginia in the past. The most recent eagle release at the park was in December of 2016.
The birds spent several months learning how to fly in outdoor flight pens and regaining strength before the Wildlife Center of Virginia’s veterinary staff cleared the birds for release, according to the release.
Two of the center’s rehabilitators, Jolanda Lipu and Rachel Johnston, said the bird’s rehab regimen included chasing the birds around their enclosure and making them fly away.
“We’ll walk up to it and they should be scared of us,” Johnston said. “If not we’ll sorta shake our arms, make loud noises, that type of stuff. We’re on critter cams half the time. I imagine the people watching us are just laughing their butts off.”
Johnston and Lipu both agreed the bird’s recovery made all the moments on the critter cams worth it.
The two birds were rescued in different parts of the Commonwealth under different circumstances.
One of the eaglets, identified by its intake number 17-0879, was discovered on the ground on May 10 in Essex County after it “likely” fell from its nest, the release said. The eagle was thin and dehydrated, but no other injuries were found.
After receiving treatment, the eagle was moved to a “nest” in a tower of one of the wildlife center’s enclosures.
The other eaglet, number 17-1354, was found after it killed and ate a backyard chicken on June 8 in Chesapeake and couldn’t fly away, according to the release. Once it was admitted to the center, rehabilitators noted the bird was thin and had lice and flat flies.
On June 10, the eagle was moved to an outdoor flight pen, the release said.
Bald eagles face a rocky path to recovery: last year more than 70 percent of all eagles admitted to the Wildlife Center of Virginia died. Many of the birds arrive with severe lead poisoning from hunter’s bullets.
“It’s been a bad year for eagles,” Clark said. “We’ve had a bunch of them come in early in the year that just couldn’t be saved.”
Less than 20 percent of birds rehabilitated by the wildlife center are released back into the wild, according to Wildlife Center of Virginia data.
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